The High Court has delivered a rare verdict in the IP field: the granting of a permanent injunction on the grounds of breach of contract which involved the unauthorised use of a confusingly similar trade mark.

The concept of a ‘strong’ patent is difficult to define.  As with many things in patent law the answer is “it depends”.  Mostly it depends on what the patentee wants the patent to achieve.  A patent which does not support the business goals of the patentee is not strong. 

 The Free Trade Agreement between New Zealand and the United Kingdom (NZ-UK FTA, the Agreement) has been finalised and was signed on the 28^th of February 2022. This article focuses on provisions relating to intellectual property rights.

 As of 24 March 2022, it is now possible to register a domain name directly at the .au domain eg. www.yourname.au. This is being called “.au direct” by auDA, Australia’s domain name registry.

 We are receiving an increasing number of emails purporting to be from clients or associates, which when investigated further are illegitimate and likely malicious.  

 The New Zealand Assistant Commissioner of Patents has given short shrift to the bid of Dr Stephen Thaler to have an artificial intelligence (AI) listed as the inventor for patent application number 776029 in Stephen L. Thaler [2022] NZIPOPAT 2.

The Full Court of the Federal Court of Australia has updated the test for assessing the patentability of computer-implemented inventions, ruling an invention regarding an electronic gaming machine with a particular feature game as not patentable subject matter.

 The NZ Plant Variety Rights Bill has been referred back to Parliament for its second reading. 

 On 21 October 2021 it was announced that New Zealand and United Kingdom have come to an agreement in principle on the key elements of a free trade deal. We highlight the commitments in relation to intellectual property which are included in the agreement.